#Fired: The National Labor Relations Act and Employee Outbursts in the Age of Social Media

Abstract

National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) has long protected employees’ rights to engage in “concerted activity” for their mutual aid or protection. Enacted in 1935, the NLRA could not have foreseen the twenty-first century collision between employment law and social media. When evaluating social media cases, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has had difficulty determining when an employee’s social media post is an individual complaint or a protected concerted activity. This Note examines the NLRA and its protection of employees who have faced employment consequences for their social media activities. It argues that the NLRB should modify its approach in social media cases to account for the intent of the employee and the public nature of a social media post.